But, unlike Alexa, the company's first Facebook-branded hardware is aimed squarely at the video-calling generation. Facebook's new Portal and Portal+ are in essence pimped-out video-calling devices with smart-speaker features to boot.

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The smaller Portal has a 10-inch 720p display, and is reminiscent of Amazon's Echo Show, Lenovo's Smart Display and the Google Home Hub expected to launch at this week's Google Pixel event. The larger Portal+ has a 15-inch 1080p pivoting display, which means the screen can run in portrait mode and be turned to also display in landscape, for widescreen imagery.

To understand why Facebook is doing this, take a look at its Messenger app, which logged 17 billion video calls in 2017 alone. This doubles the number from 2016, the same year Facebook launched group video chat in Messenger, trying to gain prominence over Skype and WhatsApp (which Facebook also owns). Speaking of WhatsApp, last year its 1.2 billion users spent over 340 million minutes each day making more than 55 million video calls.

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Available now for pre-order in the US, the $199 Portal and $349 Portal+ will begin shipping in November. To entice buyers away from the £200 Echo Show and $199 Smart Display (coming to the UK this month), Facebook is offering $100 off any two devices if bought together.

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Performance

Being a Facebook product, you of course need a Facebook account to use it as the calls all run through Messenger, which also means the Portals can call anyone on Messenger, not just other Portals. The system is also capable of transferring calls from Portal to Messenger or from Messenger to Portal should you wish to, say, switch from a mobile call to the Portal once you get home.

Facebook is making much of the systems' AI-powered Smart Camera and Smart Sound technology. The Smart Camera system using a 12MP camera with 140 degrees field of view (on both models) tracks faces as they move around and is a remarkably similar experience to that of Skype on Xbox if anyone has used it in conjunction with a Kinect camera. Except this version seemingly works better. The camera automatically pans and zooms to keep everyone in view, and the system even coped with us quickly switching places to try and confuse it. You can also choose to “spotlight” a certain person during a call by tapping on the screen on their face.

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Using the Portals' four-way microphone array, Smart Sound supposedly minimises background noise and enhances the voice of whoever is talking. This computational trickery was most obvious in very little change in volume of speech in our demo call while the person walked around a reasonably large room varying their distance from the microphone.

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The system has limited voice control, too. You can start a video call by saying “Hey Portal” and stating who you’d like to call. For more complex voice operations, Portal also has Alexa built in, so you can also integrate the Portals into your existing smart home setup if you already favour Amazon's digital assistant.

Sound-wise, the Portal has two full-range drivers producing 10W, while the Portal+ has two high-range tweeters and a single 4-inch bass speaker that provide 20W. Both have the four-microphone array.

There is no web browser on these devices, but it is compatible with a select group of apps including Spotify (though you will need a Premium subscription), Pandora iHeartRadio, Newsy, Food Network and Facebook Watch. If both ends of the video call have a Portal or Portal+ and both parties have Spotify Premium accounts or Pandora accounts, you can listen to music together as the music streams are synchronised, though each side can control its own volume settings.

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Facebook has also worked on some augmented reality experiences in a bid to make calls more interactive. As well as Snapchat-like overlays of amusing hats, backgrounds, accessories, and so on, one of these augmented reality experiences is Story Time, which adds AR effects, sounds and visuals as one side of the call reads a bedtime story via a simple teleprompter. The children on the other side see the reader transform into the visual appearance and voice of the story's characters. At launch, titles will be limited to Three Little Pigs, Five Little Monkeys, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Professor Right and Trouble Bubble, but more are planned to be added. This feature is bound to be an attraction point for guilt-ridden travelling parents.

Privacy and security

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You can hardly mention Facebook without adding the word "security", these days. Just days before the Portal's debut, Facebook confirmed a security breach had led to the exposure of 50 million users' accounts. The company clearly recognises it has some trust issues to overcome as with these new devices it is effectively asking consumers to invite a Facebook camera into their homes.

As a result, a few security measures have been implemented with the Portals. Users can completely disable the camera and microphone with a single tap. Both Portal and Portal+ come with a camera cover, so you can physically block your camera’s lens at any time and still receive incoming calls and notifications, plus use voice commands. To manage Portal access within your home, you can set a four- to 12-digit passcode to keep the screen locked.

Facebook states that it "doesn’t listen to, view, or keep the contents of your Portal video calls. Your Portal conversations stay between you and the people you’re calling. In addition, video calls on Portal are encrypted, so your calls are always secure." This encryption is not end-to-end, however. A Facebook spokesperson was unable to say why this was the case, but added that Facebook "doesn’t listen to, view, or keep the contents of your Portal video calls". Information might be accessed, preserved or shared in response to a legal request, the spokesperson continued.

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The Smart Camera and Smart Sound systems use AI technology that runs locally on Portal, not on Facebook servers. Plus, Portal’s camera doesn’t use facial recognition and doesn’t identify who you are. And with regard to voice, Portal only sends voice commands to Facebook servers after you say, “Hey Portal”, and you can delete your Portal’s voice history in your Facebook Activity Log at any time.

When asked if Facebook would be bringing WhatsApp integration, which does offer end-to-end encryption, in the future, a Facebook spokesperson stated that "we’re exploring WhatsApp integration".